By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Jan Vesely returned to action as Fenerbahce Beko recorded a convincing 97-75 road win over Darussafaka Tekfen on Round 23 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Bobby Dixon (4-5 triples) and Marko Guduric banked 16 points each while Nikola Kalinic followed with 15. Vesely registered four points and six rebounds in 18 minutes of action.
For Darussafaka, Michael Eric scored 14 and Zani Peiners 13 points in addition to Stanton Kidds ten points.
Dixon had a solid start to the game with eight points including two shots from deep which sparked Fenerbahce‘s 18-4 run in the first quarter. They eventually went ahead by a 17-point margin (44-25) and although Darussafaka showed some comeback effort with ten straight points, the guests still went on the halftime rest with a double-digit advantage (46-35).
Zeljko Obradovic was very pleased with his team and happy that Vesely returned to action so fast thanking him and strength coach Bata Zimonjic for the effort: “Darussafaka is a team that always fights a lot, and I understand their coach wanted to give a chance to young players. Congratulations to them how they fight; a lot of games they lost it was in the last minutes. It was nice to have our fans in the gym supporting our team. It was a surprise for everybody that Jan Vesely was able to join and work with the team. Thanks to him and strength coach Bata Zimonjic, who worked really hard with him. Vesely had a big desire to come back, and we know how important he is for us and our game. He also played good tonight.”
Fenerbahce didn’t stop after the break as two Serbs in Kalinic and Guduric partnered up scoring nine points each in the third quarter pushing their team to a 25 points lead (73-48) in front of the final period which was more than enough to secure the win.
“Congratulations to Fenerbahce. They played the entire game very serious and with a tough attitude. In second and fourth quarters, we could keep up with that, but in the first and third we could not. The offensive rebounds we allowed and number of turnovers we committed really hurt us a lot”, coach Selcuk Ernak noted.
Fenerbahce stayed alone at the top with a 20-3 record securing a place among the top five teams with seven rounds remaining in the regular season. Darussafaka, on the other hand, remained at three wins (3-20).